It’s been a busy offseason for senior outside hitter Tiarra Slover, who, along with members of her team, participated in camps at the University of Tennessee with UT instructors and back home at Campbell County High School with Lincoln Memorial University head coach Jenny Michael.

ROBBY O’DANIEL/Staff

Tiarra Slover goes for a hit at the LMU satellite camp at CCHS last week.

“It’s really taught me that I need to work on my passing because that’s probably my weakest point right now, and I feel like I’ve really improved,” Slover said.

Slover, 17, of LaFollette, started playing volleyball in sixth grade at LaFollette Middle School. She played all three years at LMS and has thus far played all four years at CCHS.

“My friends started playing it and they invited me to a practice, and I just really got into it from there on out,” Slover said. “And I’ve loved doing it for as long as I have, and I played club ball with a few members of this team and I love it.”

That club was Club Unite, a volleyball team Slover played on for the first time during this past offseason.

“I think that I just learned to, I don’t know, cooperate better with my team because we got put on a team with girls from different schools, and I had to learn to work well with their aspects that they brought to the team and it helped me bring that to my team and help us work better together,” Slover said.

The team co-captain praised coaches Renee and Travis Wormsley for their help. Travis Wormsley is actually who gave Slover her nickname of “T.”

“Coach Travis, he’s called me T since he’s started coaching up here, and it just caught on with everyone and now everybody at school, even the teachers, call me T,” Slover said.

Slover looks forward to playing West this regular season, a team that is new to Campbell County’s district.

“We’ve been working a lot the past couple months,” Slover said. “We have been working on our passing because that really brought us down in the previous years, and we’re focusing on that and that’s just really making every other part of what we do improve. … I have to improve on my timing, and I’ve been working on that and being more consistent with my hits.”

Slover heaped praise on several of her teammates.

“Anna Cain’s a really good passer and hitter and so is Lexy Richardson, and Destiny Wormsley and Morgan Stanley are tremendous setters,” Slover said. “They’re great. I don’t know what I’d do without them. … These camps really bring us together. And our tournaments, when we go and travel, then we just room together. We all get closer, and it really helps our chemistry on the court. And I love every single one of the players.”